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Topic: Capacitor voltage rating question (Read 2322 times)

I've got a number of capacitors laying around from a previous project. The catch is that they are rated for 250V, for example. I know the recommendation is to use a cap rated at about twice the voltage you are expecting to run through it, but is there any issue with using a capacitor that is rated at 20 or more times the voltage?

These guys are left over from a monitor repair I did a while back, thus the larger voltage ratings.

There should really be no problem in using a higher v rated capacitor, ive used a 25 kilovolt cap on a 24 volt circuit (although i did change it eventually once i got a suitable one), the load might alter slightly though

That makes sense. I just got around to looking at some of the ratings and what you say about the size is definitely true. A good example is this 350V 22uF capacitor. Its a tenth the uF's as the one used in the $50 dollar robot, but its at least 5 to 6 times larger (wow).

Edit: These are polarized caps. I guess there's some high DC voltage flying around inside a monitor.